A Cruise Of Sorts
by Darkkinkachu
Summary: When Team 7 is 'invited' to join in on a brief cruise run by none other than the EvilAndApparentlyBroke Akatsuki, things get just a little out of hand...Cowritten with Sillymail
1. Chapter 1

A Cruise of Sorts

Darkkinkachu: Woo hoo! This is my first ever co-written story, project, thing! –dances- I'm writing this with the ever so awesome Sillymail! –puts spot light on Sillymail- It was her idea in the first place, I'm just helping it along.

Oh and by the way…if any one was looking for my AkatsukiSakura fics I was supposed to be writing….well…I'm workin' on it? –nervous grin- KakuzuSakura WILL be up soon! I think…maybe…someday…

Standard Disclaimer(s)

-

The sky was blue, with not a cloud in sight. The sun shined brightly and a warm breeze was passing through. In the distance a bird could be seen, flying high above.

"Beautiful day, ne, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked while smiling.

Sakura smiled and twirled around, nodding her head in the process. She then continued to walk ahead of the rest of her team.

Kakashi took his eye off of his book and looked up at the bird that was approaching them. The jounin put away his novel and held out his right arm for the bird to perch upon.

The silver haired man took the note canister off of the bird's leg, spilled its contents, and put the canister back. Kakashi read through the note, and then replied back on a second sheet of paper that came with the first. He put the note in the container and whispered a code word in the bird's ear. It immediately took off towards Konoha.

"Well it seems that I am needed elsewhere, so I must leave you. I trust that you will be able to find the port that will take you part way to Konoha? From there, another jounin will pick you up and travel with you the rest of the way to Konoha."

"Of course we can! I mean we fought Zabuza and Haku and got out alive!" Naruto ensured.

"Alright then. Sakura, here is the money for the tickets," Kakashi handed her the money, "and Sasuke, you will be team leader. Ja ne!"

"Demo-

Sakura never finished her question because Kakashi was already speeding through the surrounding foliage.

0o0o0o

They had been traveling for about thirty minutes when Sasuke noticed a ship that kept getting closer and closer to them. The raven haired boy grew tenser and tenser, which made his team mates worry.

"What's wrong Sasuke-kun?"

"Yeah, you look like we're about to be attacked or something," Naruto added.

"It's that boat…it keeps getting closer."

Sasuke's heart was racing. As the ship got closer, close enough for the inhabitants to land, Sasuke pushed his comrades behind him and had his arms spread out to keep the back.

"Konichiwa! My Captain noticed you walking along the shore. He wonders if you need a lift." A man with long blonde hair, with his bang hiding one eye, said.

"Iie. We'll leave from port," Naruto said seriously, having caught the bad vibe.

"You sure? Your little team mate looks tired out, un"

"Sakura is fine. Aren't you?" Sasuke asked for back-up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. We'll go to the port."

"You know, we are heading to the port. We're a passenger ship, right, Hidan-san?"

"Yeah," a silver haired man smiled what was most likely suppose to look friendly, but looked rather sadistic.

"We said no!" Naruto growled.

"I was hoping we could do this without a fight…who wants to pummel the kids?" the blonde asked.

A man with black hair stepped forward that made Sasuke's blood pump faster, if that was even possible, "I'm the least messy."

"Itachi!!" Sasuke yelled and ran at his older brother after said man landed on the ground.

Itachi blocked and grabbed Sasuke's wrist. He then looked into his brother's Sharingan and said, "Congratulations on achieving Sharingan. It hasn't matured yet, did you just get it on your mission?"

"Let Sasuke go!" Naruto shouted.

"He attacked me first, Naruto-kun. I apologize. May we do this without fighting? We are taking people to ports. It would be easiest if you just get on our ship now, rather than later," Itachi said calmly.

"Don't believe him!" Sasuke shouted.

"I said let him go!" Naruto charged head on at Itachi, and was promptly kicked in the face.

"So be it," as Itachi said this he hit his brother in the back of the head, just hard enough to knock him out, not to kill.

The young man was upon Narutobefore Sasuke even hit the ground Itachi kicked Naruto up from the ground and then right hooked him in the jaw. Naruto's body twisted, landing in a crumpled heap a few feet away.

The red eyed man turned his gaze toward Sakura and asked, "Are you going to come quietly? I assure you we will not harm you, nor your team mates unless given a reason, Haruno-kun."

Sakura nodded dumbly as Itachi threw Naruto over his shoulder and carried Sasuke under his other arm. Itachi nodded his head towards the boat as a sign for her to go ahead of him. The pink haired girl gulped and jumped on to the ship, with Itachi close behind.

Itachi landed and motioned for the younger girl to follow him into the Captain's chamber. Sakura shook as she followed the man that carried her team mates. The situation scared her. Heck, even the_ crew _scared her! (Not because of their looks though; although the blue man, the green **man?**, and the puppet looked kind of scary.)

"Leader-sama, I successfully captured the targets."

"I see you roughed up the boys; they didn't want to come peacefully?" the blue eyed man called 'Leader' then turned towards Sakura, "Haruno-kun, I apologize for forcing you and your companions onto our ship. We really are taking passengers at this time to wherever they need to go. I happen to have spotted you, and decided that we would take you to your destination. Forcefully taking you was wrong, but…call us competitive."

"So you're just taking us to Kurumi Port? No strings attached?" Sakura inquired suspiciously.

Leader laughed, "No strings attached."

"Why should I believe you?! You are all S-class criminals! And on top of that, you know our names, it's like you planned all of this!" Sakura ranted.

"We research our clients. If you wish, we can maroon you on an island, and you can get home yourself," Itachi informed.

That immediately shut Sakura up. Leader, or 'Captain Leader' for the time being, took the opportunity to say, "I will lead you to Kakazu-san to discuss finances, and Itachi-san will take your team mates to their rooms. Right this way, please," Leader smiled and placed his hand on Sakura's right shoulder, guiding her out of the room and to where a man was sitting at a desk punching numbers into his calculator.

Kakazu looked up when the door opened, his white-on-black eye narrowing, "Oh great, more of 'em! You better have a lot of money girl or I'll feed you to Zetsu!"

Sakura neither knew nor_wanted_ to know who (or what) Zetsu was so she kept silent. What would happen when they found out she was dead broke? She was pretty sure Naruto wouldn't be able to pay…maybe Sasuke…

No, that wouldn't work. Sasuke was quite the miser and she was sure he would rather have his Sharingan gouged out than pay the organization his brother was in.

"Ok so that's the boarding fee…" the cloaked man, Kakazu she thought his name was, had started talking again, "Room and board fee, bed fee, blanket fee, pillow fee-"

"You're actually charging me for all those things?" Sakura choked out, unable to stop herself.

Kakazu didn't even miss a beat as he continued to tick off the many fees on his gloved fingers, "-water fee, attacking the crew fee-"

"Now wait just a second!"

"Breathing fee-"

"You can't change me for _breathing!_Air is free!"

"Yelling fee-"

"Alright Kakazu," Sir Leader broke in, rubbing his temple, "That's enough. I told you we only charge room and board. That's three people and about five days if nothing goes wrong."

The money loving man grumbled darkly as he began to poke at the calculator again, "Alrightfine…heregirl. Tell the other suckers- err…I mean…tell the other_guests_that this will be their total."

Sakura glanced down at the calculator he was holding up and gasped, "WHAT?! B-but that's almost 2,000 ryuu a room! Can we um…just get two rooms please? Naruto and Sasuke will have to learn to share."

Kakazu looked down at the small machine, and then up at Sakura before giving a rather nastychuckle,"Kukukuku…silly girl. This is just for _one_room. But if you want another-"

"One…room?" Sakura felt the blood rush out of her face and her heart skip a beat. That much for one room? Forget how embarrassing that would be, she had never even seen the amount of money this man was asking! What was he thinking? The money Kakashi gave her would only cover a quarter of what he wanted… "Isn't there any other way?"

Kakazu sighed, reaching up to scratch at the hair under his cowl thoughtfully, "Well…I guess if you all boarded with other crew members that might cut the cost a little…"

Only one thought managed to push its way through Sakura's reeling mind: _I'm gonna kill Kakashi-sensei!_

-

Darkkinkachu: Whew! –flops down on couch- This is a lot harder than I thought. Messing with another authors work is…awkward to say the least -.-'

But I'm still really enjoying this! Please remember to leave a review on the way out! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!

Kakuzu: Ok no more Mounain Dew for you...

Darkinn: It rhymes! XD


	2. Chapter 2

Sillymail: This time I'm doing the ANs. We'd like to thank you for all of your kind reviews!

A Cruise of Sorts

Standard Disclaimer(s) Applies

"Staff room…staff room…staff room. Aha! Found it- wait no that's the kitchen. Whoever drew this map is bad at it!" Sakura shook the map out of anger. After Kakazu had taken all of her money he said that she would need to go the staff room to see her team mates and let the crew know that some of them would be sharing a room.

"I take offense to that."

Sakura's eyes widened as she slowly turned around to see a tall man with blue-tinted skin. Sakura paled, this was one of the crew members, and all of the crew members are S-class criminals. Meaning, he wouldn't think twice about killing her for offending him.

Kisame chuckled at the girl's expression. "Don't worry; we're not aloud to kill our customers. Captain Leader already got onto Zetsu for eating some millionaire.

"What are you doing back here? Customer's rooms are back that way."

Sakura found her voice and said, "Kakazu-san told me to go to the staff room to find my team mates and-

"Oh you're the special case. Follow me," Kisame ordered.

Kisame led the rest of the way to the staff room (which was only two more doors down) and waited until Sakura went in, and then entered the room and closed the door.

Inside the room were two white couches, two coffee tables, a small refrigerator and stove, a large window, and a door leading to another room. The silver haired man, Hidan was it?, was cleaning a wicked looking scythe, Itachi was doing a Sudoku puzzle, and a really big venous flytrap resembling man was cooking. In the center of the room Naruto and Sasuke were tied up and gagged (due to loud screaming of "I'm going to kill you!" and complaints.)

For a moment Sakura could only stand and stare. There was just something undeniably unnerving about seeing a group of cold-blooded killers acting so…_normal_. The sight of Itachi nibbling at the end off his pencil, a thoughtful expression on his calm face, nearly sent her over the edge.

Scampering over to her companions, Sakura knelt down to their level, "Um…hey guys…"

Naruto made a half-angry half-relived 'Srrgrphan!' sound at her while Sasuke continued to glare at his brother. Itachi looked up and waved his pencil at him before looking back down and writing a number in with a tiny satisfied smirk.

"Hey can I untie them?" Sakura asked, looking around.

"No." several voices deadpanned.

Sighing, Sakura turned back to her team, "Um…we're going to have to stay here for a while."

Sasuke turned his glare on her now and Naruto started to struggle again. Sakura rubbed her temple, "Look guys, I know none of us want to be here but what other choice do we have?"

Naruto started kicking at the air, his muffled yells getting louder.

"Um…no. Look what happened when you tried to fight them before."

Naruto's head dropped sadly and Sakura patted his hair awkwardly, "Hey um…It's not so bad! They said they wouldn't hurt us and they're going to drop us off in the port in just five days! So um…now we won't have to walk?"

Both boys glared and Sakura could have sworn she heard some one snort with laughter behind her. Sasuke looked away then back at her, making a kind of questioning grunt.

"Uh…you want to know where we're staying?"

The raven haired boy nodded.

"Oooh she's good." Kisame said.

"I guess being around an Uchiha you learn to speak fluent Grumble and Hn." Hidan laughed but was quickly silenced by both Itachi and Sasuke's glares.

"Yeah…so anyways," Sakura said, turning back to her teammates, "Um…the money Kakashi gave us didn't quite pay for the tickets soooo…we have to bunk with crew members."

That got _everyone's _attention. Zetsu stopped poking at what ever he was frying and glanced over his shoulder (quite a feat considering his shoulders have plant things on them). Itachi looked up from his puzzle. Hidan's hand slipped on his scythe and he ended up with a bloody palm while Kisame's jaw dropped.

Both Sasuke and Naruto gave her horrified looks of 'Dear lord NO!'

"Well what else was I supposed to do?" the girl snapped, her face turning a bit red from all the attention, "Maybe it…won't be so bad?"

For a moment there was silence filled only by the sizzling of the food the plant man was cooking. Then several voices rang out.

"I call the girl!"and then, "No I do!"

Itachi sighed and put down his Sudoku puzzle and pencil, "I suppose I'll be the mature one and take one of the boys. In fact, I think I'll take Sasuke," Itachi smiled a little.

There was a muffled scream that sounded like "Ill Will Wu!"

"I suppose I could take the moron. Zetsu would most likely end up eating him and that would be a waste of what could have been a sacrifice to Jashin!" Hidan said.

"I guess the little kunoichi is bunking with me! I'm the most acquainted with her in this room besides Itachi (and her team mates) and Zetsu-san would probably eat her!" Kisame smiled.

The three genin in the room went pale at the thought of their bunk-mates. Naruto was really fretting over the idea of becoming a sacrifice, so much so in fact, that he ignored being called a moron. Sasuke was imaging his team mates being eaten by the venous fly trap thing-person. Sakura was also imagining being consumed by Zetsu, and started edging toward Kisame a bit.

"In my defense, I only ate that millionaire because he was getting on my nerves and looked like he was about to die anyways," the white side of Zetsu's face said.

"All this talk of eating people is disturbing our passengers. We don't want them to have nightmares, do we?" Itachi said with the voice of reason, he then continued to suggest, "Why don't we take our roommates to our rooms? They need to get settled in."

"Good idea! Right this way girl!" Kisame put his hands on Sakura's shoulders, guiding her out of the room.

"Since you lack the ability to read my map, I'm going to give you the 'grand tour' of this hall way.

"Over there is the kitchen, the bath room, Itachi's room, Zetsu's room, Deidara and Sasori's room which they have to share because of lack of space, Kakuzu's room, Hidan's room, and my room," Kisame said, pointing right or left when necessary.

"Who are Deidara and Sasori?" Sakura asked.

"Did you see a blonde guy and a really big puppet?"

"Hai."

"That's them," Kisame said as he unlocked the door to his, and now Sakura's room.

It wasn't a particularly big room, but it wasn't tiny either. The plush deep, black carpet looked nice with the various red ascents, though she wondered why their where red clouds every where. She was surprised to see how clean it was with only a heavy red and black coat on the floor and what seemed to be black boxers with little blue fish on them poking out from a drawer.

Sakura, suddenly overcome with tiredness, jumped on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed. She curled around the pillow and quickly pulled the covers on and was all set to go to sleep when Kisame said, "That one's mine."

"Huh? Why? I thought everybody liked the top," Sakura said, obviously confused.

"Well I don't, and especially not on a ship. When the ship starts to rock about at night when you're trying to sleep you can roll off. Now get up, it's lunch time!" Kisame ordered.

Sakura got up, although begrudgingly. She really wanted to sleep! Then her stomach let out an angry growl. Sakura frowned as Kisame tried to hide his smirk. Apparently she wanted to sleep and eat at the same time. Sakura couldn't believe she was thinking this but '_So troublesome…'_

When they got to the kitchen, everything was in chaos! The cooks that the Akatsuki had hired were trying frantically to get everything cooked for the buffet. Rice and fish heads were flying everywhere! And in the middle of it all, an untied and un-gagged Naruto was happily eating ramen, which he nagged a cook to give him hot water for. (He already had it in his bag.)

"Good lord…is it always like this?" Sakura turned only to see Kisame stalking away, small dark eyes set on an unattended plate of grilled fish. Sighing, the girl walked out of the kitchen and into the dining area. Little round tables dotted the room with five red-velvet covered chairs around them. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling, swaying with the ships movement and sun light poured in from the huge windows.

"Hm…this place is almost…nice." Sakura mumbled to herself, plopping down at one of the empty tables.

"Well thank you, un!" said a deep voice close to her ear, "I made most of the plans for it but of course Sasori-dana had to throw in his little 'artistic touches' here and there."

Sakura almost jumped out of her skin. With a little squeak she turned to come eye to eye with a rather handsome blond man. He was grinning at her, visible aqua eye shining with laughter, "Who are you?" She felt like she should know his name, but in her fright had completely forgotten.

"Deidara, un." He said, holding out a hand. When Sakura took it, however, she felt something slimy glide across her palm.

"YEEEEEW! What was that?" The pink haired nin squealed, yanking her hand away.

Deidara burst into a bout of deep laughter. How someone who looked so girly could have such a deep voice was beyond Sakura, "Sorry, they do that some times."

He held up a hand and, there in the palm, was a mouth, grinning at her and flicking its tongue out, "I think it likes you, un!"

Feeling oddly violated, Sakura whipped her hand on a napkin and grimaced, "Yeah, that's nice, bye now."

Before the blond could retort, another voice, smoother and a bit creepy, said, "Stop it Deidara. We're not supposed to scare passengers."

Sakura turned around, wanting to know who the person was, when she saw a very pretty red headed young man.

"Sasori-dana? Why aren't you in Hiruko?"

"Captain Leader said that it was scarring the passengers. Why aren't you wearing your waiter's uniform?"

The uniform consisted of shined black shoes, black slacks, a white flannel shirt, and a gray buttoned vest over the shirt.

"I was just going to our room to change when I heard this girl complimenting our work, un!" Deidara then turned to Sakura and said, "Oh! This is A-

"Akasuna no Sasori," Sasori extended his hand, which Sakura took.

"Haruno Sakura." _His hands are really cold…_

"Deidara, you know I hate to wait. Go change!" Sasori ordered.

Sakura started to meander toward the buffet when suddenly a small quartet started to play. Everyone's attention was then focused toward the entrance where the Captain stood with…

Sillymail: I've seen this type of ending (fade outs) before, and I wanted to test it out. Sorry if it confused anyone! Well, you can complain using the review button! All reviews are greatly appreciated!

Darkkinkachu: -dancing to 'Because We Can' in the background-


	3. Chapter 3

A Cruise of Sorts

Chapter Three

Darkkinkachu: If you like this story, you need to thank Sillymail in your reviews. Seriously…I would not get off my lazy ass and get any thing done so she swooped in and saved the day! Woo hoo! Now on with the fic!

Last Time…

_Sakura started to meander toward the buffet when suddenly a small quartet started to play. Everyone's attention was then focused toward the entrance where the Captain stood with…_

Zetsu, Kakuzu and Hidan, right behind him. All but the Captain were dressed in the same waiters outfit as she had seen before. It was what Sir Leader was wearing that made Sakura stop and stare.

Never before had she seen a man in a bight pink tuxedo.

It was almost amusing but the evil looks he was casting around the room kept her from saying anything. Instead, Sakura scampered over to the buffet, hoping to avoid any more contact with the wayward crew.

"I don't _want_ to make a scrap book!" Someone snarled close by. Sakura thought she recognized that snarl and turned around. Sure enough, there was Sasuke and Itachi sitting down at her table.

"Come now little brother," Itachi said, folding out his napkin, "It could be fun. We used to be such good friends."

"Yeah, before you murdered our clan and scarred me for life!"

"A mere technicality…" Itachi easily dodged the spoon that was thrown at him. Sakura decided to sit somewhere else.

Her stomach gave another growl and she sighed, "Hm…now where-"

"You can sit with us."

Sakura jumped and whipped around. Staring at her blankly was the plant man, his waiters suits rather ruffled.

"We?" Sakura asked, looking around. He seemed to be alone at the table but you just never knew with these people, "And aren't you supposed to be in the kitchen or something?"

"We had a slight…accident." He said calmly before breaking into an insane grin.

Sakura blinked and started to back away, "Um no thanks…I was going to sit with…" she looked around in a panic, eyes falling on Naruto, "with my team mate!"

The pink haired girl quickly walked over to Naruto and sat down with her food. Naruto looked up as he put some fish in his mouth, "Sakura-chan!"

"Hey, Naruto. The cooks kick you out of the kitchen?"

"Yeah, they caught me stealing cake…"

"You got caught stealing cake? And you call yourself a ninja…" Sakura shook her head, trying to cover up her smile.

"I think they're ninja-cooks or something. One hit me with a frying pan!" Naruto pointed at his forehead where a big red lump was. Sakura laughed in response.

"Greatly Valued Passengers, we offer…" Hidan stopped reading off of the card when he realized whom he was serving, "oh, it's you brats. What do you want to drink?"

"Hey I'm not a brat!" Naruto shouted.

"Hmm…you're loud, annoying, and younger than me. That's a brat."

"Arrgghh! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Sakura sighed and backed away from the soon-to-be-disaster area. Was there no peaceful area to eat at? Her eyes widened as she saw a very…interesting use for lettuce. She then decided that she wasn't hungry anymore and started heading off to the kitchen. As she was about to enter the kitchen a puppet, by the looks of it, grabbed her plate and took it for her. Sakura blinked, and turned around to see several puppets working as waiters, and Sasori directing them.

"How do you do that?" Sakura asked, having walked up to him.

"It's quite simple. You channel your chakra through the strings connecting to the puppets."

"Do you do it the same way you do the tree walking exercises?"

"In a way, but you must stretch it down the entire string, and keep it consistent."

"Can I try?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

Sasori glanced over at her, one eyebrow slowly rising, "I suppose…" he said, releasing one of the puppets, which immediately fell lifeless.

The puppet wielder watched with amusement as the young girl tried to make the marionette move, brows knitted in concentration and tongue caught between her teeth.

Grinning, Sasori beckoned his blond friend over, silently pointing out the struggling figure. Deidara gave a snort of laughter as Sakura managed to get the puppet to come into a half standing position, its arms wobbling uselessly.

But their entertainment was short lived as Sakura managed to have the puppet grab a tray and promptly dump a bowl of hot soup onto a patron.

There was little Sasori could do as both Sakura and Deidara vanished and Captain Leader came storming towards him, all pink and furious.

As Sakura walked away from the Leaders angry yelling she saw a door leading out of the dining hall. She exited, and saw a breathtaking site. The sky was painted in hues of vibrant reds and soft oranges.

The pink haired girl then noticed that she wasn't alone. Her blue skinned roommate was there, and he was…sleeping? Sakura came closer, trying to get a closer look at him to see if her theory was correct. She poked him in the arm and WHAM!

Sakura fell to the ground unconscious, as Kisame retracted his arm that had hit her automatically. The shark-like man sighed and the only thing running through his mind was, 'Damn.'

Darkkinkachu: I'm a bad person…you guys need to review and not only thank Sillymail but shoot me in the head -.-' Kaythnxbai…


	4. Chapter 4

Sillymail: Yosh! Chapter 4 is now here! And thank you for all the lovely reviews!

Standard Disclaimer Applies

A Cruise Of Sorts

Chapter Four

Kisame glanced around, panic rising unpleasantly at the back of his throat. What was the girl thinking, sneaking around on a ship full of S-class criminals and then poking them in their sleep?

Sighing, Kisame bent down and scooped the pink-haired girl up with ease. A blush rose up to his blue cheeks when Sakura unconsciously grabbed a fist-full of his shirt and nuzzled into his chest, "oh geez…if any one sees this I'll never live it down…"

The shark-like man spent the next ten minuets sneaking around the ship and avoiding being seen. He gave a happy grunt of relief when he saw their room with in sight.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Kisame froze. Oh not him…any one but him…

"Nothing, Hidan. Go back to the kitchen or something."

Hidan's silver eyes brows rose, violet eyes taking in the very suspicious looking scene, "Nothing? Looks like something to me, fish-sticks…"

"It's nothing! Look, I just accidentally hit her in my sleep."

"You hit her?! And she's a passenger too…I'm telling Captain Leader!" Hidan shouted, and ran off in the direction of the dining room.

Kisame's eyes widened, and in his haste to stop the self-mutilating psychopath, dropped Sakura and ran after Hidan. Sakura woke up with a groan and looked around, trying to figure out where she was on the ship. The injured girl put a hand to her head and decided that she would try and find a medical wing so she could get some aspirin for her pounding headache.

Sakura wandered down the hallway, looking for a map. She sighed in frustration when she couldn't find one. The kunoichi brightened when she thought of going to the dining room where all the crew members seemed to be. A couple of turns later she was at her destination.

"Um, Captain-san, can you please direct me toward the medical ward?"

The "Captain", Leader of Akatsuki, frowned, "You're one of the passengers rooming with the crew, right?"

"Hai."

"Gomen, but since you couldn't afford to have a room, I highly doubt that you can afford medical treatment."

Sakura gulped. They didn't.

"Well, I supposeI'll just... go back to my room now..." Sakura said, starting to turn around.

"Wait!"

Startled, the young girl turned again just in time to catch a small bottle of pills. Sakura blinked at him for a moment.

"Don't tell Kakuzu." The amber haired man said with a wink before walking away.

For a moment all she could do was stand there. Slowly, blood crept into her face until Sakura was a bright lobster-red, "He _winked_ at me…"

It took a good twenty minuets of wandering before Sakura found her room again. She took a one of the pills and then went to sleep on the top bunk.

The next mourning Sakura awoke to a pounding on the door. She groaned and climbed off the bed and noticed that her roommate wasn't in the room. The pink haired girl brushed her hand through her hair a few times before opening the door to reveal an irritated looking Sasuke and an excited Naruto.

"Ohayo, Sakura-chan! Kakuzu-san said he wanted to see us in his office."

"Alright," she said and closed the door before joining her teammates on their journey to the money-obsessed man's office.

They had been walking for five minutes when Sasuke said, "Dobe, you got us lost again."

"We're not lost!" Naruto grumbled, and then pointed to a random door, "that's Kakuzu-san's office!"

He pushed the door open and all three froze at what they saw:apparently, Kakuzu hadn't expected them to arrive so soon. Shirtless and with only one sock on, the man stood there and stared at them blankly.

Sakura blushed lightly, trying hard not to look at his bare chest. But to be honest, those coarse stitches looked rather good on him.

"OH MY GOSH!" Naruto screamed next to her, flinging an arm up to cover his eyes, "He's NAKED!"

"I am not!" Kakuzu snapped, turning his back on them and reaching for a plain white shirt, "And what do you brats think your doing, barging in like that and not even knocking?"

"Like you're really one to be teaching us manners," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes, "since you kidnapped us and all."

"Liberated." Kakuzu sniffed airily, buttoning up his shirt, "We liberated you. Not kidnapped. We would never do something so ghastly as kidnap children."

"We're not kids ya know!" Naruto pouted, "We're teenagers and ninjas at that!"

"Have a seat," The money-loving Akatsuki said, ignoring Naruto's angry protests, "There's something we need to talk about…"

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Darkkinkachu: Oh snap! It's another cliffhanger! –shot- ow…reviews are always appreciated! –shot- STOP THAT! –shot shot shot-


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